Florida teacher on leave after he is accused of drowning raccoons in class

[jpak]

Source: Washington Post

A Florida teacher was placed on administrative leave after school officials were told that he had students help him drown wild raccoons during class.

A 14-second video published by WKMG-TV in Orlando show a group of students filling a big tub of water using a hose and later keeping a raccoon, which was inside a metal wire trap, submerged. A mother told the TV station that her son, who shot the video, came home upset about what happened to the animals. The raccoons had reportedly been killing chickens that the students were raising for class.

Two raccoons and an opossum were killed Monday at Forest High School in Ocala, Fla., according to the mother, whom the station did not identify.

The teacher, Dewie Brewton, was placed on paid administrative leave with pay Tuesday while the school investigates, said Kevin Christian, spokesman for Marion County Public Schools. Christian said he couldn’t comment further, saying only that Brewton was placed on leave as part of standard protocol and that school officials did not have issues with Brewton in the past 34 years he has worked on and off for the district.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2018/05/16/florida-teacher-on-leave-after-he-is-accused-of-drowning-raccoons-in-class/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.76fb8a2bd6a2

[RockRaven]

1. Why is he just on leave and not in jail?

Forget the school investigation, the police should be the ones investigating.

[BigmanPigman]

2. What is going on with Ocala?

They had a school shooting this week too.

[Blue_Tires]

3. WHAT KIND OF FUCKING CLASS IS THAT FOR??

[cab67]

4. we raised chicks in my advanced bio class in high school.

This was in New Jersey in the 1980's. We were injecting some with hormones to see the impact on the expression of secondary sexual characteristics (comb, etc.). But so far as I know, they were raised in the lab room and sent off to greener pastures - or so I'd like to believe; they were sent to different pastures, anyway - after a few weeks.

I have no idea if that's the kind of class this was.

added on edit - I would guess the chickens involved in this class were also very small. Raccoons will attack full-grown chickens, but I can't imagine an opossum would.

[LisaL]

7. Opossum didn't attack any chickens, according to what has been reported, it had been

killed just for "sport."

[BlueTsunami2018]

5. I don't know how people can be so cruel.

The raccoon was already caught. Why do such an inhumane thing? Especially in front of kids. And opossums are gentle creatures. I actually have a family of them living in my yard in the city.They eat trash, kill bugs and are generally pleasant. Development has moved a bunch of them into urban areas.

Maybe because I’m a city dweller I don’t understand the casual killing of animals. It’s seems unnecessarily cruel.

[Bantamfancier]

31. Opossums will kill chickens.

But unlike a raccoon, who will keep killing as many as they can catch. A opossum will catch and start eating a single chicken, not bothering to kill it first.

You trap them but always follow the 3Ss.
Shoot
Shovel
Shut up

Drowning one in front of a class is just cruelty.

[Solly Mack]

6. I won't type what I'm thinking.

[onecaliberal]

30. Same. I'd be banned

[Roy Rolling]

8. Arrest-Worthy

Cruelty to animals is often a precursor to violent behavior against humans. There should be strong intervention on this potential timebomb.

[Sunlei]

9. teacher couldn't take the time to release them 10 miles away?

[MissB]

20. In some jurisdictions you can't do that

In our city the trappers can’t release, so if you hire a trapper you have to understand that he will kill the raccoon.

On edit: and not by drowning. They kill them by gassing them. One of our neighbors feeds all the animals- skunks, deer, raccoons. Another neighbor traps the smaller animals and shoots them. Not exactly harmonious.

[GulfCoast66]

24. That would have violated state law.

Captured nuisance animal can’t be released on property different from where captured, with few exceptions. They pretty much have to be euthanized.

That said, drowning is not the way to accomplish the task.

[LanternWaste]

34. And also violates the law, as well.

"drowning is not the way to accomplish the task..."

And also violates the law, as well.

[forgotmylogin]

10. All it would require is a quick internet search to find an organization to take the animal.

I encountered a youngling raccoon that had fallen from a nest up in a high tree, it was still alive but injured. The mother wouldn't come near it - I don't know if possibly it had been pushed from the nest or if it had fallen and the mother instinctually knew she couldn't help it. We googled "wild animal rescue" since we didn't have the capability nor the space to raise raccoons as pets. We very easily found an organization who gladly picked it up so they could nurse it to health and either release it in a safe area if possible or find an otherwise suitable home for it. They did it for free, only asking us to make a donation at a later date if we were able.

[Demovictory9]

11. his email: [e-mail]

[Chakaconcarne]

17. THANKYOU!!

[TheBlackAdder]

12. This guy violated Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Regulations on Euthanasia.

.

Yes, there are regulations for that type of stuff.

What do I do with a nuisance animal after it is caught?

Live-captured nuisance wildlife must be released legally or euthanized humanely within 24 hours of capture or trap inspection. Any non-target wildlife should be released immediately at the capture site. Unless prohibited by rabies alert or quarantine issued by County Health Department or County Animal Control, live captured nuisance wildlife may be transported only for the purpose of euthanasia or for legal release, Euthanasia guidelines can be found on the Report of the American Veterinary Medical Association Panel on Euthanasia. Only native species of wildlife may be released.

http://myfwc.com/conservation/you-conserve/assistnuisance-wildlife/faqs/

AVMA Guidelines for Euthanasia

S1.5 UNACCEPTABLE METHODS
With the exception of IM delivery of select injectable anesthetics, the SC, IM, intrapulmonary, and intrathecal routes of administration are unacceptable for administration of injectable euthanasia agents because of the limited information available regarding their effectiveness and high probability of pain associated with injection in awake animals.

Household chemicals, disinfectants, cleaning agents, and pesticides are not acceptable for administration as euthanasia agents.

Other unacceptable approaches to euthanasia include hypothermia and drowning.


Appendix 3.
Drowning -Drowning is not a means of euthanasia and is inhumane.

Download the AVMA Guidelines PDF here: https://www.avma.org/KB/Policies/Pages/Euthanasia-Guidelines.aspx


I'm not sure what the fines and punishments are in FL.

In NJ, it's thousands of dollars, a criminal conviction with jail time, and addition to the new Animal Abuse Registry.

.

[Nitram]

13. I'm assuming the guidelines are for trained fish and wildlife officers, or for those who hold

some kind of state-issued permit. That a teacher would do this in a classroom is totally sick. Maybe he's a garden-variety sadist, but he could be a dangerous sociopath. Not the sort one wants around one's kids.

[TheBlackAdder]

14. They are for all property-owning residents as well as for state employees.

You are allowed to capture animals on your property, but must follow relocation & euthanasia guidelines.

Most people enlist trappers to perform these functions.

[Nitram]

15. Thanks for the clarification. Are these guidelines for "nuisance animals" only?

[TheBlackAdder]

16. Nuisance Animals is just one subset. It applies to farm animals, pets, and all other wildlife.

[oberliner]

18. Is race a factor here?

Would the response be different if the teacher was white?

[LisaL]

19. Different how?

I have no clue what you are implying here. Are you suggesting more people would support a white teacher who drowned raccoons or more people would condemn it? In addition race isn't mentioned in the OP article, so why are you assuming everybody is aware as to what is the race of the teacher is?

[MissB]

21. What?

[IronLionZion]

22. Did you go searching for the teacher's race?

Since it's not in the posted article.

[FSogol]

23. LOL, you are trying too hard.

[GulfCoast66]

25. I assumed he was white.

Obviously did not read the link.

[jberryhill]

27. Well, at least it wasn't a slaughter

[RKP5637]

26. So F'en many WTF's each day. n/t

[jberryhill]

28. It's the internet

There are hundreds of millions of people in this country.

It is a statistical certainty that, each day, a given number of them will do something spectacularly stupid.

That's not new. What's new is that now, when someone does something spectacularly stupid, it goes into what is effectively a competition for "grande idiot du jour".

[RKP5637]

29. Excellent point!!! n/t

[haele]

32. Hate to say it this way, but that's an old-school way of dealing with small "nuisance" animals

Including unwanted kittens and puppies.

My father had a story on how his grandfather wanted to "toughen up" him and his brother once the old man thought dad was old enough to handle it; the household cat had kittens again, and his grandfather made both of them help him dispose of the ones they couldn't give away. Because a "real man" understood that these sorts of things just had to be done to live in an orderly house.
Dad could handle the quick butchering of the chickens and rabbits they raised for Sunday dinners.
But the prolonged, merciless way g-grandfather - and other heads of households killed small creatures when the meat didn't have to be safe - or if a bullet or the effort to make it quick didn't need to be "wasted" on a "varmint" was pretty much unforgivable in his mind.

People are crueler than nature.



Haele

[Ferrets are Cool]

33. Excuse my language for a moment.

GOD DAMNED MOTHER FUCKING ASSHOLE

I HATE MOTHERFUCKERS WHO ABUSE!!